


Hunting the Jersey Devil

by HK44



Series: Prompts: 2018 Edition [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Cryptids, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fluffy Ending, Magical Realism, Tumblr Prompt, hunkshipweek, pidge still hunts cryptids bc classy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 21:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15228645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: “No, nothing like that,” Pidge assured him. “It just stipulates that after the contents of the initial contract are completed, and pending no grievous injuries to either parties, we have to follow-up on the mission at a predetermined eatery.”Pre-determined eatery.Hunk dropped his hands, the amendment, more like addition, fluttering in his grip. “You want me to go to dinner with you.”(For the HunkShipWeek 2018)





	Hunting the Jersey Devil

The darkness crept over them. Hunk shivered as the last stretch of precious sunlight vanished beyond the horizon. The air tickled him cold and his wings, already tucked warmly under his shirt, just drew closer into his back.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he grumbled, kicking at the dirt.

Pidge spared him a solitary glance before looking back down at her runes. “Of course I do.”

Her words bled a lie and he scowled. Why, oh, why in the fresh hell did he agree to do this?

It was a simple mistake. He was working in his bakery, his lovely warm bakery that wasn’t in the middle of a secluded patch of forest where monsters supposedly slept, and all he’d done was step outside to catch some air.

And she had a box with her. She asked if he was the person she was looking for her. He said yes.

_ He thought she was his fucking delivery person _ .

But no. She was just some entry-level mage who got him to sign a contract and waiver saying he had to help her with proving the Jersey Devil existed so she could pass her exam and finally be bumped up to apprentice and start doing  _ actual  _ but that she wasn’t liable if he, ya know,  _ died _ . And her box was just a box of scrap parts, not his new baking molds.

This is why Hunk trusted very little people and the people he did trust, it was pretty damn  _ vaguely. _

And that fucking contract was magic, could only be broken if  _ she _ did it herself and she had been willing to until she found out he was a sun fairy, which, oh, was  _ perfect _ .

He had to physically restrain himself from strangling her.

“Okay,” she said, jerking him from his thoughts of smacking her and running away. She pointed to a point between a group of trees. “Set one there.”

Hunk cracked his knuckles, spared Pidge a short annoyed glare and then traipsed off into the trees. As the burst of sunlight crackled inside his palm, glowing hot and bright, he grumbled to himself. A mage’s damn fairy. What year was this? Eighteen seventy-five? Fairies weren’t small sissy creatures anymore than mage’s were the horrible evils that tricked or forced them into long-term labour.

He shot her another glare, which she didn’t have the decency of  _ noticing _ , and drew the sunlit orb from his palm.

He’d gone and done what so many fairies struggled to do. He made a name for himself. He went to school. He  _ owned _ a bakery and it was amazingly successful, despite people’s initial beliefs. Against all luck, against all fate, he wound up content and happy and  _ settled _ .

And now he was stuck working a life-or-death situation with a stupid mage who didn’t care if he lived or died.

How was that for luck?

He let the orb hover grandly in the air. The Waywern trees drew closer to it, releasing soft sighs that curled around him warm. 

Oh, he did love nature. And it loved him. It’s why he kept so many plants in his shop, in his house, even a couple along the windowsills of his kitchen. They drew close, told him secrets they heard. The kissimer flowers eased tensions, made everything calmer so his store was a delight to stick around him, and he dabbled light onto their petals. They soaked it up, gave him fruit, gave him flowers.

Another reason why’d she been so pleased he was a sun fairy. Sun fairies could commune with plants, perfect for locating demonic beings that lived in forests. Sun fairies could make light, perfect for cornering demonic beings that hid in darkness. Sun fairies could create defensive weapons made of light, perfect for attacking demonic beings that were hurt by said light. Sun fairies, sun fairies,  _ sun fairies! _ And to think, she’d almost gotten stuck with some delinquent water sprite who needed the work for community service hours.

The stupid delinquent sprite that didn’t even show up because they were too busy getting arrested again.

Dumbass.

Pidge jerked into his space and the trees drew back. Unhappy energy radiated from them, energy she didn’t notice but Hunk did. It rattled him.

He patted the trunk of one, softly brimming it with warmth until it’d calm down.

“What are they saying?” Pidge demanded, shaking her runes in her fist.

Hunk huffed. “They’re saying they don’t like you.”

Her head snapped up and she squinted at the tree from behind her glasses. Annoyed, she shook her head and dropped her runes into her other hand, eying whatever they were saying, then shoved them roughly into her pocket and stormed off past the orb.

The Waywern trees hissed at her descent. Hunk patted them soothingly again before following. She had him set up more orbs in strategic locations that made no sense to him. She didn’t ask him to talk to the trees again until she’d stared at her runes and looked up to the moon, stretching high across the sky.

Hunk didn’t appreciate the moon as much as he did the sun. It’s cold unforgiving presence made him uneasy. But it provided soft light that made him feel much safer in the angry chill of the dark.

Pidge stuffed her runes into her pocket again and sat down to the dirt with a unclassy  _ plop _ . Hunk squinted at her.

Everything about her was unclassy, undignified. From the way she laughed to the way she treated his intense unwillingness to work for her. She dug out a granola bar from her bag and chewed it loudly, lips smacking.

He recoiled, settling between in the trees, right where the light of the moon hit him best. It didn’t invigorate him like it would’ve if it was the bright and gorgeous sun but the feel of it comforted him. The dark was so cold, so unnerving.

Lance used to make fun of him for needing so many nightlights, for sleeping with the closet door open, the light inside spilling through and keeping the pureness of the dark away. But sun fairies were sun fairies for a reason. Daylight was where they thrived.

And the darkness knew that.

He rubbed his arms, uneasy as the clouds moved closer and closer to blocking the moon. He could barely see it as it was, trapped under the stretch of the trees. They ruffled their leaves, tried to spread them out for him but it was difficult. They could only move so much before they hit one another.

He sighed and sank into the trunk, letting his eyes fall shut.

“Oi!” Pidge called out. “I need you to sign this!”

He cracked one eye open, trying to remember if anything in the original contract forbade him from smashing her face in with his fist.

She was waving around a sheet of paper. “It’s an amendment,” she said.

An amendment?

Ugh.

He got up and walked weary to her, snatching the paper from her dainty fingertips. She smiled up at him as he scanned it over.

The words, written in gray ink, were difficult to read in the dark. He snapped his fingers. A tiny orb shot out of them, glowing weakly.

“What’s the amendment?” he asked, searching for it.

“Just some new wording,” she said breezily, trying to shove her pen into his hands.

He scowled at her. “What? You want me to be the bait now or some crap?”

She snorted and bumped his thigh with her hip. God, she was ridiculous small. He could’ve just held her down and  _ forced _ her to break the contract.

Stupid moral compass.

“No, nothing like that,” she assured him. “It just stipulates that after the contents of the initial contract are completed, and pending no grievous injuries to either parties, we have to follow-up on the mission at a predetermined eatery.”

Pre-determined eatery.

He dropped his hands, the amendment, more like  _ addition _ , fluttering in his grip. “You want me to go to dinner with you.”

She didn’t even look at him but shifted awkwardly. “Basically.”

He stared at her. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Now she was looking at him, her face screwed up but a dusting of red beneath her cheeks. “Well, I didn’t think you’d agree otherwise.”

“To- to  _ dinner _ ?” he spluttered. “Of course not! When this is over, I go home, you go home and I pretend I never met you! Why would you even think-”

“Because I like you,” she snapped, glaring up at him.

He stared at her.

The fuck?

“Wait, wha-”

The trees rustled and she grabbed slapped a hand over her mouth, standing up on the tips of her toes.

_ Fuck _ , she was small.

They crept backwards into the hidden dark of the bushes. Hunk shivered under the feel of it all. Pidge pressed her face to his, craning to see over the bush. Then she turned, her nose brushing against his cheek cold. He recoiled and her eyes fell, a little sad.

“What are they saying?” she whispered.

He paused, listening to the rustle but it was hard with her pressed all into him, trying not to be seen in the cramped space they’d settled into. For all that she was skinny and small, she was pretty warm, her breath hot on his bare skin. His wings shuddered under his shirt.

“They’re saying,” he started, slowly, “it’s coming.”

Her plan, as stupid as it had seemed in the moment, was working out. The devil, creeping out to feast, had stumbled into the first light orb and fled right into the path of another. With every rush away from the light, it stumbled into the path of another and another and another until it was careening right for them.

The only problem was it’s speed was increasing with every step, every fearful hop away from the sunlight it cowered away from.

Which meant Hunk had to time this right, otherwise they’d both get trampled to death.

He pushed Pidge behind him, needing to  _ see _ .

The trees whispered at him, urged him to flee, urged him to run but as much as he wanted to, the contract kept him still. He raised his arms, fingertips peeking out from behind the bush. He breathed hard, trying to keep steady. The chattering of the trees grew louder and louder, echoing in his head a tumultuous ache.

The creature, cryptid, monster, burst straight ahead of them. Hunk’s breath caught at the sight of it, barreling for them. He almost missed his cue but caught himself at the last second. Light from deadened orbs hidden in a bright circle around the exploded out.

The Jersey devil wailed in fear and backed up only to run into another light. Hunk drew them in, keeping it stuck, circling and wailing where it stood, nowhere to run. The sunlight had it trapped.

It wasn’t exactly like Hunk had thought it would like it. It’s hooves clopped restlessly, goat-like face releasing bat-like cries into the air. It was much smaller than he’d initially guessed and even Pidge seemed a bit lot as to why it was so small.

“Does it seem a bit young to you?” she said, rifling through her bag.

“Maybe it’s a baby?” he suggested.

A flash of glinting metal gleamed in her bag before her head snapped up. Sudden concerned bloomed over her face. “You think so?”

He nodded and walked forward. “Maybe.”

The creature recoiled at the sight of him, its wails growing louder and louder. It sounded like a baby crying, a terrified toddler. The wings were small, not wide and expansive but barely able to cover it’s scrawny chest. Much like with young fairies, he doubted it would’ve been able to even get off the ground. It’s horns were stubby and small, wide giant eyes watery with fear.

He dimmed the light of the orbs and stepped close. It got a little quieter as it focused on him but then Pidge shifted and it was back to crying desperately.

He sent her an annoyed look and waved her off. “Go take pictures from the trees or something.”

“Uh-” She shifted awkwardly and laughed. “I left my phone in the car.”

“You didn’t bring a camera?” he hissed.

“I wasn’t intending to take pictures!” she huffed back and it hit him what that metal in her bag was.

He stared at her dumbfounded. Then  _ snarled _ , “ _ You were going to kill it!” _

She glared at him. “Pictures can be faked! And that was only for the worse case scenario.” Her hands glowed as she brought it up. “I was going to knock it out and tie it up.”

“And then what?” he demanded. “Give it to someone else so they could kill it?”

She dropped her hands and faltered, but said nothing. Just made vague noises. A shiver crawled down his back. He pointed at her viciously.

“This!” he snapped. “This is why I hate mages! You lot always think you know best, that you’re better than us, but you’re just  _ evil.  _ You force me to work for you, you force me to come along, you try to trick me into  _ dinner _ -” She dropped her gaze, drawing into herself. “-when you could’ve just  _ asked _ , you know, like a  _ normal _ person. And then you were going to go and pretend to absolve yourself of all blame by getting someone else to gut it?”

He stepped back and looked at the creature, which had gone quiet, crouching down low and trying to hide from it. Behind him, Pidge trembled and, after a moment went by, spoke, voice hushed but  _ clear _ .

“I wasn’t going to kill it unless I had to,” she snapped. “And I wasn’t going to let anyone else kill it either!” She rose her head, held his gaze defiantly. “My brother’s friend? The guy i’d be an apprentice under? He has a sanctuary for hunted creatures. I was going to take it to him  _ since _ he’s the only person I need to clear me for apprenticeship level.”

He stared at her, then drew back. “Why take it anyway then?”

“So people will stop looking for it,” she grumbled, finally walking up to it. “And you’re right,” she added. “Mages are evil.” Tentatively, she reached and stroked its wing. The devil shuddered and withdrew from her, trying to hide more, but she kept stroking it anyway. “Sooner or later, it would be caught or its home overrun.”

Hunk regarded her carefully then looked back to the creature, finally pulling it’s head out from under its wings to stare, it’s wide wet eyes shimmering, at the two of them. Finally it relaxed against her hand, burying its muzzle into her palm and chittering patiently.

  


Coran, Pidge’s future master, locked the habitat the devil had been deposited in and put the key back on the lock with the others. Apparently he had a few more he’d discovered himself in the area, which was why she knew it’d been there in the first place.

That’s why Pidge had been surprised to see it was a baby. Not because the idea of killing a baby had disgusted her but because she didn’t realize that it had technically been  _ abandoned _ when Coran roped away its family.

But the moment they’d brought it in, the others had descended on it, their bat-like cries filling the air with delight. It was a rather sweet moment.

Coran dusted off his hands and patted Pidge. “I’ll be sending your papers this week,” he said. “You did fantastic.”

“It was mostly Hunk,” she said, shooting him a nervous smile.

He returned it.

“Ah, yes, Hunk!” Coran turned to regard him broadly. “I do hope you won’t tell anyone about this place.”

“She wrote it into the contract that I can’t,” Hunk said, crossing his arms. “But I wouldn’t have either way.”

“Excellent!” Coran chirped. “Right well, let’s get inside, shall we?”

They left the sanctuary, a large place, hidden under layers and layers of magic and technically in Coran’s basement. But anything else would’ve been suspicious, Coran had said. He used magic to soundproof the area and to keep any looky-loos that  _ didn’t _ have permission to be there from breaking in accidentally and spilling the beans.

Pidge, as she explained in the car, had been suggested Coran through her brother’s friend Shiro, who’d met him years earlier after an accident took his arm, leaving him a bloody amnesiac mess dying in the woods around Coran’s property. Coran, along with his niece Allura, treated him through it and helped repair his memories until he was good and able to go back out into the world.

Shiro, working as an assistant to Allura at her law firm, had been the one to draft Pidge’s contract, which Hunk figured was fair. Despite her glasses, which Hunk was pretty sure  _ weren’t _ actually hers, nor did she really need them she didn’t seem focused enough to actually sit down and  _ write _ everything that had been on it, hidden clauses in fancy wording and no loopholes.

The addition she’d sparked up crackled in his back pocket as they walked up the steps.

He still hadn’t signed it.

Neither one of them had mentioned it as they took the devil back to Hunk’s car, a nice orange Jeep. Hunk didn’t want to sign it, rationalizing that she still tricked him. She still forced him to go along with her, even after he asked her to break the contract.

She was still mean.

But, in her defense, they didn’t know each other. This was the most contact he’d had with her since he met her days ago. Everything else had been through email, setting up a date to go do the thing. Occasionally, between then and now, she stopped by the bakery and bought a couple things before chilling out one of the couches with her laptop balanced on her knees but it wasn’t like they  _ talked _ .

As he drove to Coran’s house under her quick instructions - turn here, turn there, crap, turn back, we missed the road - she’d been pretty cool, all things considered. She kept the devil, which alternated between considering her a danger and considering her a friend, well trapped and calm so it wouldn’t disturb Hunk too much or wreck the back of his car. She talked to Hunk like a person.

So maybe, like with a lot of situations, he’d just been holding a grudge against her, letting it cloud his judgement.

And it wasn’t like she was  _ unattractive. _

But it was still sketchy that she didn’t think that  _ maybe _ he wouldn’t be cool with being scammed into signing another contract that forced him,  _ again _ , to do something against his will. Or maybe that didn't click in her head at all. Mages loved their contracts, after all.

Coran lead them to the front door of his house, a nice two-story cottage out in the countryside.

“Well, it was lovely to meet you, Hunk! And Pidge.” He regarded her broadly. “Email me as soon as your verification goes through! We don’t want to waste any time!”

“Will do, Coran,” she said, shaking his hand. “Tell Allura I say hi.”

Coran nodded, his mustache just barely hiding the smile held wide on his face, and they left.

As she walked with him down the path to where he’d parked the car, Hunk felt her hand, kind of sweaty, keep bumping against his. Against his better judgement, he caved and took it firmly. She didn’t look at him but her whole body went stiff and tense. A shy shaky smile spread across her mouth, red tinting her cheeks.

He smiled and they kept on to the car, hand in hand.

  


He unlocked the door and stepped into the coziness of his house. He lived right above his store, which had been big motivator in renting the space in the first place.

Warm lights spilled around him, growing brighter as he stepped in. Pidge peeled off her jacket, looking around. He took it from her, hung it up beside his and gestured around quietly.

“So this is it,” he said.

She glanced back at him. “No kitchen?”

He shook his head. “Nah, I just use the one downstairs.” Gesturing around again, he explained, “It wasn’t meant to be an apartment, more like a storage space.”

As soon as he’d made enough buck to buy the building, he’d immediately fixed up the upstairs so he could live there peacefully, rather than it just being a place he conked out in after a long day. Fixed the wiring, painted the walls,  _ finally _ changed out the glass planes of the windows like he’d been dying to do ever since he moved in.

Even got a nice bathroom put in so he didn’t have to keep going downstairs to pee or rush over to the gym just for a shower, though that had been a good motivator to keep up his workout regime because, well, he  _ was _ already there and he _ had _ paid for use of the equipment with his membership.

But the kitchen stayed firmly downstairs. It was just easier. He didn’t need two spaces to cook in, especially when the one in the store was already so much better.

It was a good space to stay in all things considered, a little balcony too, overlooking the front entrance of his store. 

Pidge nodded pleasantly, looking all over the room.

They’d just come back from dinner, days after their little tryst with the devil. Pidge, finally gotten the go ahead with her verification for apprenticeship, had called him up to thank him again and then did the one thing she’d been avoiding doing ever since they held hands all the way back to her apartment and parted ways.

She asked him out. You know. Like a  _ normal _ person.

Honestled, the length of time it took for her to ask him had been driving Hunk crazy. Bu he wasn’t going to cave and ask her.

No, sir. He had better things to do like telling Lance to stop arguing with Keith and refreshing his email every nine minutes and telling Keith to stop being a grumpy baby all the time and wondering why Pidge hadn’t  _ called _ or  _ emailed _ him yet.

Important stuff.

Pidge drew back and smiled at him. “It’s nice.” She pointed at a portrait on the wall. “This your family?”

He nodded. “My mom and my sisters.”

She pulled her arms behind her back. “They’re cute.” She smiled up at him again. “Well, uh, dinner was nice, yeah?”

It was. He got a steak, they split a wine and she paid for everything. Perfect evening for him. She’d even requested a table with ample lighting, rather than taking the outdoor seats everyone coveted, and then brought out a jar of sunlight she wouldn’t say where she got to keep him energized. When she had, she’d ducked her head at his gaze, low, embarrassed, confessing that she’d read up and found that artificial light wasn’t always the best either way and thought he’d appreciate it more.

He had.

It was sweet.

Hunk nodded slow. “Yeah. It was great.”

They regarded each other slowly. He watched her eyes. Finally,she looked away, stretching up. As her back cracked, a soft sound, not concerning or sharp, her hand twitched slightly. His blanket unfolded from where he’d draped it over a chair that morning and crashed into his back, sending him sailing into her and onto the couch.

She gave a little grunt as they landed. He drew back slightly, watching a sheepish grin, that didn’t match the mischief in her eyes  _ at all _ , flutter over her mouth.

He snorted. “Classy.”

She loped her arms around his neck and shifted so she was comfortably sprawled out beneath him. “Do I look classy to you?”

No, she didn’t. Her hair fluffed up around her head, her glasses oversized and skewed on her nose, she looked more goofy than dignified.

But Hunk was finding that he liked goofy more than dignified.

He pressed a hand to her thigh, hooking her leg over his waist before flipping them over. She gave a little jolt of surprise but grinned down at him and snapped her fingers. The blanket flew up and over them once more. She leaned down against his chest, arms still loped around his neck. He wrapped one arm firm around her waist, the other hand held tight on her hip.

She smiled down at him.

He smiled up at her.

The lights dimmed just a bit lower as he pulled her in close, his lips brushing the underside of her jaw. She sighed and threaded her fingers through his hair, dropping her head ever so slightly to meet him head on. He kissed her back hungrily, his fingers fluttering against her waist and licking into her mouth nice and slow. She groaned into his mouth, a guttural noise that his inside twisting desperately.

His skin glowed low his own pleasure and excitement and she pulled back, giggling awkwardly. Her lips were red, shirt hitched over her stomach. “I  _ love _ sun fairies,” she drawled, brushing back her hair out of her face.

He smirked and tightened his hand over her hip, a quick burst of heat that had her jerking into him, a low smirk across her face from it. He brushed his thumb over the spot. “And I still hate mages.”

“Okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But I’m different.”

He grinned up at her brief before pulling her back in because he didn’t need to affirm that. Of course, she was different. She was Pidge, apprentice level mae,  saviour of cryptids and wearer of glasses she didn’t need. And, of course, lover of sun fairies.

A really  _ good _ lover of sun fairies.

**Author's Note:**

> Second day! How'd I do?
> 
> [Tumblr](https://happyk44.tumblr.com/) || [Other Links](https://linktr.ee/hk44_art)


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